Spent – {Carrot Cake]

An unfamiliar hum resonates between my ears, berating my senses as I stare questioningly over the gaming floor. The combined ringing and whirling becomes little more than a confusing cloud of noise and I find separating the components into unique entities not only impossible, but pointless. Streaming fluidly from the displays, the sounds pool thickly around my feet, edging up my calves and straining for my pockets. Dictated by flashing lights and spinning reels, a number of navigable aisles lay before me. Mom is captain for the night, so I check out and simply train my eyes on her heels as she leads through the fog.

Depositing a crisp twenty into the slot machine wasn’t easy. The bill was quickly swallowed whole as if it had slipped into a vending machine, but I knew I’d receive no chips or candy in return. Still, worn buttons displaying the words “one credit,” “two credits” and “max credits” lay winking below my hesitant fingers. Their show was overtly seductive, and successfully so; by the end of the night their cheap charm and alluring call would draw fifty dollars from my tightly-buttoned green clutch.

Just a few hours later, I examined the empty space in my wallet and thumbed through the remaining bills. As I considered the night’s decisions, I found that I couldn’t free my pockets of the guilt sewn deeply inside. With every bill I had relinquished that night, I had thought not of winning, but instead of the things I could have bought instead. And the thoughts weren’t fleeting; visions of chocolates and pans and nuts and fruits and extracts danced in my mind, and on top of that was the general bad feeling I have whenever I spend money on something frivolous, because that money really should have gone toward tuition.

I had fun spending time with my mom and Grandma that evening, but I don’t want to go back. I always think very seriously about spending money, so I guess that just means that the casino’s not really my cup of tea! What do you think? Do you like to gamble? Ever win big and promise to give me half?

Anyway, I always make carrot cake for Easter because my Grandma (HI!) requested it once and… Well, I guess I just never quit making it. But it’s tasty, you know, so no one complains! That said, for every nickel and dime that went into the slot machine, I was hoping and praying more and more that I would have all of the ingredients at home to make these! Luckily I did!

Happy Easter! I hope you all have an amazing weekend!

$50 Carrot Cake from Cooks.comI halved this and got 16 cupcakes. They’re delicious, but I had an issue with them sinking! Nearly half of them caved in. This always happens to me with oil-based cakes, the exception being these. Anyone know what’s up with that? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Printable Recipe

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line 3 cupcake pans with liners or grease and line one 9″x13″ pan or three 9″ pans.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar in a large bowl. Mix well to combine and set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, vanilla and maple flavoring (or syrup). Add to the dry ingredients and mix just slightly. You should still see streaks of flour. Add the remaining ingredients and fold gently to thoroughly incorporate all of the ingredients. Pour into pans and bake:

Cupcakes: 20-25 minutes, or until they spring back when lightly touched. Cool in pans 5 minutes, then set on a rack to cool completely. 9 inch pans: 50-60 minutes, or until they spring back when lightly touched (but to me this seems a little long. Be sure to check it often). Cool on a rack for ten minutes, then loosen the edges with a butter knife and turn onto racks to cool.9″x13″ pan: 50-60 minutes, or until they spring back when lightly touched (but to me this seems a little long. Be sure to check it often). Cool on a rack until room temp.

Beat together the cream cheese and butter. Sift in the powdered sugar in 1/2 c increments, beating slowly at first so the powdered sugar stays in the bowl and scraping the sides often. After all of the powdered sugar incorporated, add the vanilla and maple syrup, then beat for five minutes until lightened.

To decorateTop cupcakes with a generous spoonful of cream cheese frosting and spread evenly. Toll edges in chopped pecans. I topped mine with some gumpaste carrots that I made yesterday evening.

Comments

I have no idea why your oil-based cakes cave in. Maybe it is because of the pan you use? I don&#39;t know. Anyway, your cupcakes look cute! I love the carrot decoration. I don&#39;t like nuts and carrot cake, but my mom loves them both. I will have to make this for her.<br /><br />Why is this cake called &quot;$50 Carrot Cake&quot;?

These look perfect to me. As to why they might cave – I am clueless. I&#39;m sure you&#39;ve gone through the litany of possibilities and ruled them out. The usual culprits are oven temp or cooling in a draft.

I am so glad you dropped by my blog, leading me to yours. I can&#39;t believe that all these beautiful creations are made by a 19 year old. I am really humbled. You write really well and take absolutely beautiful pictures (though the format is a little huge, I had to pull back another 30cm to view the screen :D) <br />You will have a new follower in me… can&#39;t wait to see what the talented

Those look delicious…<br />Gambling scares me… Because everytime I slip that bill in the machine, my thoughts go racing &quot;thats the money i could have spent shopping&quot;, or thats a twenty I could have saved for a trip.<br /><br />But it&#39;s still fun. I can see how it could be addicting.

These look gorgeous, both the cupcakes and the photos!<br />I don&#39;t know about the oil-based cake problem; I&#39;ve never tried one before. The rest of it sounds deceptively simple. I might toast the pecans before topping. Yum.

Very Cute cupcakes! I used to make a carrot cake somewhat like this, I&#39;d completely forgotten about it until I saw this. Thanks for stopping by my blog, it&#39;s always nice to discover another foodie 🙂

I love bed of pecans the cupcakes are on and the carrots are just too cute! I make a &quot;no-carrots harmed in the making&quot; carrot cake with shredded pears instead which also uses oil and i don&#39;t really have the sinking problem. I would say try cutting the baking powder down to 1.5tsp. Sometimes when I add too much, it rises really high in the oven and then caves spectacularly once it

these look truly beautiful! i make carrot cake cookies but have never tried to make the cake itself or your rendition of cute little cupcakes!<br /><br />i agree with the previous poster who said to cute down the baking powder! good luck!<br /><br />here&#39;s my little carrot cake cookies in case you wanted to try your expert hand :)<br />http://clutzycooking.blogspot.com/2010/02/

I&#39;m with you, not very into gambling, although I have been known to participate in family poker nights at my grandmother&#39;s where the buy-in is $2 so you get off pretty easy. Otherwise, I&#39;m with you. I&#39;d rather have something new for the kitchen or carrot cake to delight in!

Very nice post. For a moment I thought I was reading a novel, or a short story out of one of my very humble library 🙂 I love the cupcakes, too. I am not a big carrot cake person, but I wouldn&#39;t complain if I was given 1, 2 or 3 of them 🙂

I&#39;m with you on the gambling…. what a colossal waste of money … and what a guilt trip…. which hardly makes it fun. I&#39;d much rather use my hard earned loot on something special. Some day…a lovely custard yellow Kitchen Aid mixer… which I have yet to find locally anyway…. I wonder where I ever did see one…but, I know I did. <br /><br />…..love carrot cake…. and my hubby

I love the way you write also ;)<br /><br />The photos are beautiful as are the cakes themselves.<br />I can never justify spending anything more than 5cents at a casino as I just don&#39;t like gambling – that being said I do occasionally buy a lottery ticket, but hey, you never know if one day it might be you…

You have such a fantastic blog and great recipes.<br />Next time reduce your sugar to 200g.<br />From experience my cakes or cupcakes sunk when the flour was more than the sugar.<br />With this little adjustment I get perfect cupcakes.<br /><br />http://www.flickr.com/photos/shamsd/

Hi, <br /><br />Great blog, your cakes look awesome!<br />I found that my cupcakes usually cave in when I either use too much baking powder or put on the frosting too soon (when they haven&#39;t cooled sufficiently).<br />Maybe that helps to explain your problem 🙂